Dead Or Alive 5+ officially coming to the Vita next year

Tecmo Koei developer Team Ninja has officially revealed the Vita-exclusive Dead or Alive 5+ alongside a release date, screenshots and not much else.

Did you enjoy Tecmo Koei’s recent fighting title Dead or Alive 5, but wish you could somehow take its virtual fisticuffs with you on the bus? Perhaps you wish it was possible to kick a scantily-clad female ninja off a rooftop while sitting at work, bored out of your skull. In either case, developer Team Ninja has you covered.

A new page recently appeared on the Dead or Alive 5 official site that reads simply “Dead or Alive 5+ for PlayStation Vita 3.19.2013.” These words are accompanied by a handful of screenshots from the handheld iteration of the fighter. No truly useful details are offered beyond that release date, though the images we’re given are quite impressive and could very easily be mistaken as screenshots from the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 version of Dead or Alive 5 cropped to fit within the dimensions of the Vita’s high-definition screen.

Though we officially know very little about Dead or Alive 5+, that title and recent history gives us a good idea of what we should expect from Team Ninja’s handheld title. Both Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Street Fighter X Tekken saw Vita iterations released months after their console counterparts, and each included all the content found in their predecessors as well as a number of extras. Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, for instance, included all of the DLC costumes released for the game prior to its Vita debut, while Street Fighter X Tekken’s Vita incarnation offers players free access to the 12 DLC fighters released for the title six months after it first hit store shelves. Given the abundance of DLC costumes already available for Dead or Alive 5 on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Store, we’d expect Dead or Alive 5+ to include some, if not all of these bonus outfits.

Alternately, if Team Ninja is feeling really generous, it might take the same approach as Netherrealm Studios when bringing Mortal Kombat to the Vita. Not only does that handheld title include all of the DLC released for its console counterparts, it also adds an entirely new Challenge Tower that includes an additional 200 missions for players to enjoy. Mortal Kombat is currently the high-water mark for console-to-Vita ports, so it would take something truly impressive for Dead or Alive+ to unseat Netherrealm’s gory fighter.

Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess what Team Ninja has planned for this game. A new character? New stages? Poorly-planned ad hoc multiplayer functionality that loses all relevance in any region outside of Japan? All of these are possible, and we expect the developer to offer up a comprehensive list of the features planned for Dead or Alive 5+ in the near future. Until then, mobile fighting game fans will just have to content themselves with the largely excellent (if somewhat shallow) home console versions of Dead or Alive 5.